Wild went from top to the bottom in a hurry

April 09, 2012|BY MICHAEL RUSSO Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Like an earthquake that rocks you from a deep sleep, Mike Yeo never saw it coming. In mid-December, the Wild was 20-7-3, atop the NHL standings and whatever button he pushed seemed to be the right one. The Wild was the first team to hit 20 wins and 40 points, the best road team in the NHL, the league’s best comeback team and the national media began pumping Yeo’s tires as the potential Coach of the Year.

That’s why Yeo is “embarrassed” that his first year as the Wild coach concluded after Saturday’s regular-season finale against his mentor, Dave Tippett, and the Phoenix Coyotes.

Yeo, Tippett’s bloodand- guts warrior as a player for the Houston Aeros in the late-’90s, says, “I’m very proud of a lot of things that I’ve done and every day I’m extremely proud to coach this organization and to work for the people that I work for and to coach the group of guys that I coach, but . . . I’m embarrassed.

“The bottom line is we didn’t make the playoffs.

I’m not naive. I know it’s hard to make the playoffs. And I know we had injuries and everything.

But to me, my job is to get us through that.”

All indications from the top of the organization is that Yeo will return for a second season. One giant reason?

Those first 30 games when the Wild bought in to exactly what Yeo was selling. It had an incredible work ethic, stuck to Yeo’s system almost robotically and waited for the other team to crack night after night.

The Wild suffered injuries, yet others were ushered in and became interchangeable.

But suddenly, the injuries became too much.

The Wild lost four top-six forwards at the same time, including captain Mikko Koivu and playmaker Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Others were plucked from the roles they were suited to play and the Wild’s identity vanished for three excruciating months.

A 5-17-6 stretch lasted from Dec. 13 to Feb. 18.

Hard on himself “To be honest with you, I feel like I let people down,” Yeo said. “I hate losing. I love winning and I hate losing probably even more than that. A lot of times when we were losing games, you don’t even want to go in public.”

On Nov. 12, when the Wild was humiliated by Los Angeles, 5-2, Yeo knew exactly what to do to motivate his team, saying having “a team kick the crap out of you” should be a wake-up call.

The Wild responded by winning its next five contests and 12 of the next 14.

On Feb. 9, when the Wild was humiliated by Vancouver, 5-2, Yeo, in an equally calculated remark, tried to motivate his dying group by saying, “We flat-out stink the last two months.” The Wild responded by losing its next four games as part of a winless homestand.

“When things went south, it became much more difficult (to push the right buttons),” Yeo said. Entering the season finale, the Wild was 4-0-1 in its previous five games and had won six of 10.

Yeo is confident the adversity he and his players endured will make them all better “at handling these things in the future. I think we’re going to be a stronger group.”